Controlling the Silk Route
chapter three
Controlling the Silk Route
Collapse of the Old Empires
Vast empires such as Rome and Han China possessed are hard to
maintain. Through the whole of the Roman-Han period, the stability
that allowed the trade routes to prosper was constantly under threat
and would occasionally break down altogether.
The Han Dynasty's official history records the exploits of a general called Ban Chao. In 73 ce he took an army into the Tarim Basin,
A A view ofmodern-day where the constant raids of the Xiongnu (Huns) had dislodged Istanbul, formerly Chinese power and upset Silk Route trade. It was a successful Constantinople. The Roman
Emperor Constan tine gave the campaign and led to increased contact between China and the city his name when he made it Kushan and Parthian Empires. But Rome and Han China were never his capital in 330 ce. to meet - perhaps because of sheer distance or perhaps
through the intervention of the middle empires, keen to An 18th Century Chinese maintain control of the lucrative East-West trade. drawing of two Xiongnu
warriors. The Xiongnu During the Third Century ce, the constant were a constant threat threats to Han China's stability finally to Chinese control became irresistible. Floods and famine of the Tarim Basin
throughout the resulted in a series of rebellions period of the throughout the empire, Han Dynasty. seriously weakening the
power of the Han. Warlords
seized control of provincial
cities and the Xiongnu once
again attacked from the North.
With the death of the last Han
Emperor in 220 ce, the dynasty
came to an end and China
divided into a series of smaller,
unstable kingdoms. Controlling the Silk Route
The Roman Empire, too, was beginning to crumble. The cost of eastern luxuries and maintaining large armies had drained its economy, leaving it almost bankrupt. Recovery was hampered by internal revolts and the barbarian invasions from northern Europe and Asia. In 330 ce, the Emperor Constantine selected
Constantinople, at the mouth of the Black Sea, as his new capital, reflecting the gradual shift eastwards of Roman interests. Over the next few centuries, the empire was to lose control of its western
European and north African territories. The remaining lands became known as the Byzantine Empire (taking its name from
Constantinople's old name, Byzantium).
A The marble head of the
Roman Emperor Constantine
who ruled from 306 to 363 ce.
This was pan of a colossal
sculpture that stood over
15 metres high.
An excavation ofa Silk Route
town on the southern edge of
the Taklamakan conducted by
Sir Aurel Stein in 1901. The
wooden carvings on the site
date from around 200 CE and
reveal how the inhabitants
were much influenced by
styles from nothern India and
Iran. Stein also found evidence
that the settlement was
abandoned about 270 CE and
concluded that this was
probably a result of the
breakdown of Chinese power
in the Tarim Basin which
followed the end of the Han The Romans' old adversaries, the Parthians, had also been having Dynasty. problems maintaining their empire. In 224 ce, they were finally ousted by a powerful and militaristic tribe from southern Iran - the
Sasanians. Not content with the lands of Mesopotamia and Iran, the
Sasanians swept down the Indian Grand Road to take on the Kushans.
From the middle of the Third Century ce, they completely dominated the Silk Route territories between the Pamirs and the Euphrates.
During all this upheaval, overland trade inevitably declined but it did not cease altogether. The Byzantines still bought silk in large quantities and the Chinese, despite their internal problems, still contrived to send the material eastwards to meet this demand, by land and increasingly by sea. The Sasanians, like the Parthians before them, swiftly took on the profitable role of middlemen.
23 Controlling the Silk Route
Sasanians and Sogdians
The Silk and Spice Routes flourished under the Sasanians. Their
government maintained a rigid control of the trade and imposed heavy
taxes on all goods passing between their lands and the Byzantine
Empire. This was made possible by the network of forts that lined the
Sasanian-Byzantine borders - the only official route that was open to
trade passed between the heavily fortified border cities of Nisibis and A A Sasanian glass bottle Dara. It is still possible to trace this part of the Silk Route in northern dating from 5 -6th Century ce. Sasanian glass such as this has Mesopotamia as frequent traffic has left a heavily worn track crossing been found as far east as the landscape. Japan. Further east, the Sasanians shared the role of middlemen with the
Y A present day Kyrgyz Sogdians. A tribe from the Samarkand region, the Sogdians had first caravan of Bactrian camels risen to prominence on the Silk Route under the Kushans. They took passing through the Pamirs, just as the Sogdian caravans caravans over the Pamirs and around the Tarim Basin, sometimes as did centuries before. far as Dunhuang. Alongside the Sasanians, the Sogdians developed
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their reputation as the merchants of Central Asia still further. They established several communities along the northern edge of the Tarim
Basin, helped by their knowledge of sophisticated irrigation techniques.
No longer protected by the Han, the techniques of sericulture and silk weaving had slowly spread westwards, although China continued to produce the best quality silken twine and material. Using Chinese thread, Sasanian and Sogdian silk weaving industries flourished from
Central Asia to Mesopotamia. Few examples of these silks still survive but some made their way to Europe, where they have been found wrapped around sacred relics, while other fragments have been discovered at Buddhist cave sites in the Tarim Basin. Their motifs and A This Sasanian gold plate style heavily influenced the later designs of Chinese, Byzantine and with silver reliefshows the 4th Century King Shapur II
Muslim cloth. hunting.
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Sasanian and Sogdian decorated metal bowls and jugs were also A Two Sasanian iron swords, one with a finely worked gold highly prized. Other vessels made from thick clear glass with elaborate scabbard, both dating from cut decoration are typical Sasanian products and were traded as far as 6 -7th Century ce. Japan where they were used by the imperial family. Objects like these provide definite evidence that the Silk Route was still functioning.
It is very unlikely that any merchants took part in direct long¬ ? r-v< ÍL-!?^ distance trade. Instead, the exact size and composition of a given 45 / ~~^~~~~JÏ caravan must have changed with every stop and supply of fresh pack 0 animals. In addition, one-humped camels (dromedaries or cross¬ £v Vi breeds) and mules were used for the western parts of the Silk Route, whereas, in the east, only the shaggy haired, two-humped, Bactrian camels were capable ofcrossing the cold and hot extremes of the Pamir 0 / - " mountains and the Taklamakan desert. Jö
A A map of the Sasanian
Empire in 531 CE when it was
at its greatest extent.
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